Over the last few decades, interest in eating locally has grown quickly. From just-picked apples in Washington to fresh peaches in Georgia, local food movements and farmer’s markets have proliferated all over the country. Desert dwellers in the Southwest are taking a new look at prickly pear, mesquite, and other native plants. Many people’s idea of cooking with southwestern plants begins and ends with prickly pear jelly. With this update to the classic Tumbleweed Gourmet, master cook Carolyn Niethammer opens a window on the incredible bounty of the southwestern deserts and offers recipes to help you bring these plants to your table. Included here are sections featuring each of twenty-three different desert plants. The chapters include basic information, harvesting techniques, and general characteristics. But the real treat comes in the form of some 150 recipes collected or developed by the author herself. Ranging from every-day to gourmet, from simple to complex, these recipes offer something for cooks of all skill levels. Some of the recipes also include stories about their origin and readers are encouraged to tinker with the ingredients and enjoy desert foods as part of their regular diet. Featuring Paul Mirocha’s finely drawn illustrations of the various southwestern plants discussed, this volume will serve as an indispensible guide from harvest to table. Whether you’re looking for more ways to prepare local foods, ideas for sustainable harvesting, or just want to expand your palette to take in some out-of-the-ordinary flavors, Cooking the Wild Southwest is sure to delight.

Drawing on thousands of years of foodways, Tucson cuisine blends the influences of Indigenous, Mexican, mission-era Mediterranean, and ranch-style cowboy food traditions. This book offers a food pilgrimage, where stories and recipes demonstrate why the desert city of Tucson became American’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy. Both family supper tables and the city’s trendiest restaurants feature native desert plants and innovative dishes incorporating ancient agricultural staples. Award-winning writer Carolyn Niethammer deliciously shows how the Sonoran Desert’s first farmers grew tasty crops that continue to influence Tucson menus and how the arrival of Roman Catholic missionaries, Spanish soldiers, and Chinese farmers influenced what Tucsonans ate. White Sonora wheat, tepary beans, and criollo cattle steaks make Tucson’s cuisine unique. In A Desert Feast, you’ll see pictures of kids learning to grow food at school, and you’ll meet the farmers, small-scale food entrepreneurs, and chefs who are dedicated to growing and using heritage foods. It’s fair to say, “Tucson tastes like nowhere else.”

For nature lovers as well as cooks, there's plenty to whet the appetite in this unique field guide-cum-cookbook. Starting with the first plants ready for eating in the early spring (watercress and nettles) and following the sequence of harvest through the late fall (persim-mons and Jerusalem artichokes), Kay Young offers full, easy-to-follow directions for identifying, gathering, and preparing some four dozen edible wild plants of the Great Plains. And since most of the plants occur elsewhere as well, residents of other regions will find much of interest here. ø 'This is not a survival book," writes the author; "only those plants whose flavor and availability warrant the time and effort to collect or grow them are included." The nearly 250 recipes range from old-time favorites (poke sallet; catnip tea; horehound lozenges; hickory nut cake; a cupboardful of jams, jellies, and pies) to enticing new creations (wild violet salad, milkweed sandwiches, cattail pollen pancakes, day-lily hors d'oeuvres, prickly-pear cactus relish). ø Reflecting the author's conviction that just as we can never go back to subsisting wholly on wild things, neither should we exclude them from our lives, this book serves up generous portions of botanical information and ecological wisdom along with good food.

Abstract: A collection of 39 recipes contributed by 5 Indian tribes of the American Southwest features staple foods traditionally grown in Indian village gardens. These native foods include corn, squash, pinto beans, red and green chilis, pumpkin, and wild desert plants, e.g., prickly pear, mesquite, tepary, squawberry, and cholla. Many recipes of the Apache, Papago, Pima, Pueblo, and Navajo originated before contact was made with Spanish culture; others include foods introduced with colonization. Most ingredients found in these recipes, however, are available in local supermarkets and grocery stores. (nm).

This book celebrates the amazing diversity of the original foods of North, Central, and South America. Foods of the Americas highlights indigenous ingredients, traditional recipes, and contemporary recipes with ancient roots. Includes 140 modern recipes representing tribes and communities from all regions of the Americas.

Now in paperback!When Mark Miller opened the doors of Santa Fe'¬?s Coyote Cafe in 1987, the face of American cuisine changed forever. Blending centuries-old culinary traditions with modern techniques, Miller pioneered the emerging Southwestern cuisine, earning accolades and thrilling diners at the Coyote with his robust, inspired cooking. Originally published in 1989, COYOTE CAFE was Miller'¬?s first cookbook, and it has since sold over 200,000 copies, making it one of the best-selling full-color cookbooks ever. Nearly 15 years later, with Southwestern influences entrenched in kitchens across the country, we'¬?re excited to make this landmark book available to a new generation of cooks in a paperback edition. Featuring over 150 recipes, COYOTE CAFE presents the bold, sumptuous creations that have become Southwestern classics. Mexican, Hispanic, and Native American influences inflect such imaginative dishes as Wild Morel Tamales, Lobster Enchiladas, and Yucatan Lamb. When you try the vibrant cuisine of COYOTE CAFE, you'¬?re experiencing one of America'¬?s most dynamic regional cuisines.,Ä¢ Over 200,000 copies sold in hardcover.,Ä¢ Includes an extensive section on choosing and preparing over 35 fresh and dried varieties of chiles, as well as an in-depth glossary of ingredients.

Stephan Pyles is the undisputed master of contemporary Texas cuisine, with world-renowned restaurants in Dallas and Las Vegas, the best-selling books The New Texas Cuisine and New Tastes from Texas, and a hit show for public television. He has been praised by everyone from Paul Prudhomme and Craig Claiborne to "Gourmet and "Esquire, and is widely recognized as one of the most creative chefs in the United States. Now, in Southwestern Vegetarian, Stephan introduces us to a bold new take on two of the country's most popular culinary styles -- the regional specialties of the American Southwest and the natural splendor of vegetarian cooking. From Jalapeno-Cilantro Jelly or Red Chile Linguine with Pumpkin Seed Pesto to Southwestern Vegetable Paella or Smoked Tomato Pizza with Basil and Queso Fresco, every chapter features Stephan's special brand of innovation. Stephan also excels in reinterpretations of traditional dishes, whether it's the simplicity of a homemade Pico de Gallo or the perfect Wild Mushroom Risotto, or even a country-style soup such as Posole -- here spiced up with southern greens, chayote, dried cherries, and pecans. From a breakfast of Huevos Rancheros with Ancho-Roast Garlic Potatoes to a dessert of Mole Cake with Cherry-Almond Ice Cream, Tamarind Anglaise, and Orange Caramel, these dishes will make every meal, in every season, an unforgettable experience. The nearly 200 recipes are at once brilliantly inventive yet still accessible to the home cook. And although all can be prepared for a strict vegetarian, Stephan's approach is that vegetarian food is a cuisine, not a lifestyle -- and so he doesn't stifle the urge to toss in the occasional ingredientsuch as shrimp or chorizo sausage (optional, of course). With stunning photographs and a design that perfectly evoke the food, Southwestern Vegetarian is a sophisticated change of pace that opens a whole new approach to two increasingly popular cuisines.

Those bristly cactus spines are guarding something really good to eat.